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Jimmy Edgar, "Color Strip"
I'd love it if someone put out a new slab of roller-rink rockingelectro every few months so that I could at least daydream aboutrollerskating while I'm in my car with the subwoofer thumping funky 808throbs at me. Jimmy Edgar's newest is such a record: a lovelyslice of new school meets old school on wheels. If I can leaveall of the record's fashion-conscious hoo ha behind, I'll be just fine.I can't tell if Jimmy Edgar is infusing old school Detroit electro witha newfangled sense of digital arrangement or if he's making moderndance music with a retro pop-locking fetish, but either way, it'sworking. Moments on Color Striplike the opening of "My Beats" sound as if they could have escaped froma Cybotron 12" from twenty years ago, but they are always juxtaposedwith something decidedly new-sounding like the filtered synth trills in"I Wanna Be Your STD," and that makes this record a wonderful way torevisit old school electro without feeling like I should just put on anold record instead. A lot of the rhythm programming here simplywasn't possible with a lot of early '80s hardware, so the record isn'tlikely to be confused for a relic. Still, Edgar's not simplyreferencing the past here; it's more like he's pulling it as if througha time machine to show how the supposed future sound of music from afew decades ago still sounds futuristic today with a few tweaks andcuts.
"Personal Information" actually sounds like it could be an earlyMadonna instrumental with some smart production and over-the-top synthbass hooks. The vocals on cuts like "Color Strip Warren" are (true tothe genre) mostly monotonous and serve either as a simple hook or justas an added texture amidst a flurry of drum programming and bassthrobs. I can't fault him for lyrics that don't particularly resonatebecause he's frankly working from a mold that's light on substance andheavy on groove. Luckily, the groove is all here, and it's authentic.
I imagine that kids growing up with laptop battles and plug-ins and anendless stream of data from which to sample in a world of complexdigital production and synthesis at their fingertips might find Color Stripa little too straightforward and even routine. Those on the lookout fortredy retro-styling might have alarms going off with the album's coverimage, also. To me, however, the beauty of the record is that itbalances the new school tricks with old school charm. Vocoders and 808sand wiggly synth leads are de rigeur for this sort of record, andthere's no reason to spaz all of that out with a million micro-editsand the DSP kitchen sink. I'm glad to find records like this every oncein a while, and while I'm not about to join an electro 12" of the weekclub and play the whole thing into the ground, Color Strip is an excellent addition to my collection, and one that's going to take a lot of trips around the roller skate dance floor.
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